Pages

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Danish Hovawart Puppy Mill Meltdown: First Dogs Saved

The first dogs are saved. They were handed over by the owner into the care of the animal welfare organization "Dyrenes Beskyttelse". They are as we speak in the shelter of "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" in Roskilde.

The staff in the shelter are first and foremost giving the dogs a "mental time-out", considering that the dogs have never been outside before and only have seen the inside of a cage their entire life.

They are all in poor shape. They are underweight, have bad teeth and open wounds. Their fur is matted and dirty. But they are safe, rescued from a life of torture and are now making their first steps into a new future. They will be fed, their wounds healed and their fur cleaned. All dogs will go up for adoption, but first when they are ready, received the proper care and are re-socialized. Something we can all rejoice.

Remarkable is that this first group of dogs are given up by the owner of the puppy mill voluntarily. "Dyrens Beskyttelse" is in a continuous dialog with the man, and yesterday he agreed to hand over some of the dogs. When they finally went into the stables to get the dogs, the sight they met was different from what was told by be the police though.

What "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" told me, was:

"we could retrieve 23 dogs in agreement with the owner. After seizing the dogs and moving them to our shelter in Roskilde, 2 unfortunately had to be euthanized immediately, as they were in very bad shape. After their first medical examination of the others, 4 more dogs had to be euthanized. Unfortunately we found 33 more dogs on the property. Vi hope to convince the owner to hand over the remaining dogs as well, so they can receive the necessary care and medical treatment as soon as possible."

The "official" number so far of dogs inside the property has thereby gone up, as there are not 40, but as much as 55 dogs found inside the property. It is not only unfortunate that the number is higher than first was given, it also makes me doubt about how thorough the investigation of the police and their vet's has been, when you miss no less than 15 dogs.

Looking past the numbers, the bigger picture is that "Dyrenes Beskyttelse" is actively coming into the case now and they have established a dialog with the owner. The first dogs are saved. Most of them are still alive and looking at a new future, for others their suffering has at least ended. All in all positive turn of events and hopefully the developments keep going as fast as they have been going the last couple of days. Then we achieve the goal of having the dogs out as soon as possible, instead of February 1, which is still the plan the police would like to follow.

We have to try to get them all out. Keep up the pressure in support of "Dyrenes Beskyttelse". Please keep sharing and signing for the dogs that are left behind. It would be great if Pia and me could handover your 1000 signatures to the Mayor soon. We only need 160 more signatures:

And a final message to all the fellow campaigners that read this. There is more focus on the case now. The Danish Kennel Club reported about it today and "will ensure authorities are aware of the events". Politicians are now starting to answer the mails we send "because they see there is a lot of concern and they have received multiple inquiries about the issue". One journalist, Allan Grassberger of the paper "Dagbladet", is now reporting daily about the puppy mill, and he will include our petition in the next article. Thank you all for your writing efforts, it is a huge job, but it also is bearing fruit.

9 comments:

Great to hear about the saved dogs. So alarming to hear that even more are in there than first believed. And very very sad that so far 18 dogs have had to be put to sleep. That is so, so wrong. Back to emailing and pushing tomorrow.

It's really good news. But it's so sad that some of the dogs had to be put to sleep, at least they don't suffer anymore. Thank You Leo for all your efforts and thank all of those who are doing sth for these poor dogs.

This is great news from the perspective that the momentum is now headed in the right direction. I think it sad that the investigators were so lax in doing their jobs, but I am glad that the rescue group has stepped up.

I saw the video you posted this morning. I hope that helps motivate the owner to relinquish the remaining dogs. Thanks for pushing this through Leo. I hope you get those remaining signatures.

I'm so relieved that some of the dogs were able to be saved because it indicates movement in the right direction. You're doing a phenomenal job following this story. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that more dogs are saved.

Get Kenzo and Tilde in your inbox

About us

Maybe you are new to Hovawarts, and you are curious to learn more about this wonderful dog breed. Or maybe your have already completely lost your heart to them, like I have, and you just need some confirmation you are not the only one ... to have lost your head as well in the process. You're in the right place!
more about us ...